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ACT 1
First Scene
The Inquisitors of the Holy Inquisition
( Tommaso Cosimo Caccini, Lodovico
delle Colombe, Niccolò Lorini, Claudio Acquaviva, Benedetto
Mandina , Jacopo Aldobrandini e don Pedro de Vera; one unnamed secretary and four
friars; two soldiers; witnesses: Scipione Prestinace, Giovanni Mocenigo,
Francesco Graziano and friar Celestino from Verona; the Unnamed Witness; Pope Clemens VIII’s envoy Alberto Tragagliolo;
the devils of Loudun: Lucifer, the young Satan, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Elimi, and Astaroth; apart
Dante and Virgil).
The lights get on over a
square table where twelve people form a judge board for heretic sinners, proponents of
deism, scientific searchers, magician, witches, astrologers and fortune-tellers. On the table there are
several ponderous books. The secretary has got a plume ink pen and writes down
the assize’s record. Above the table, with block characters there a festoon
with the write “Pigeon League”. On
the left there is a door with a script “Astronomical Observatory”; still on the left, much closer to the judges
table, another door with the script
“Torture Room”; On the right a third door leads outside. At the table some cardinals, friars and a secretary chancellor.
President Tommaso Cosimo Caccini: Eminent
brothers and members of this holy assembly, we are conveyed to debate and
sentence against all the enemies of Saint Roman Church: heretic
sinners, proponents of deism, scientific searchers, witches, wizards, astrologers and magicians.
But above all we fear the asserters of reason. They want to destroy the church
for they fight against the pope’s authority which, as we all know, in founded
on the sacred scriptures, the only dogmatic truth. They are the darkness
posing as light, the blasphemy pretending to be science, the falsehood
impersonating the truth. In one word they are the antichrist came on earth to
destroy the world! (to the soldiers) Let the first witness enter!
The First Guard opens the Astronomical Observatory Door
Secretary: (screaming out loudly) Scipione Prestinace!
Second Scene
(all the above said plus Scipione Prestinace)
Scipione Prestinace: Your Eminences! I’ve seen him! The man from Stilo! He’s
building the City of the Sun! (after witnessing, like all witnesses, he will stay on the back of the room)
Card. Caccini: That’s enough! Call the second witness!!!
Secretary: Giovanni Mocenigo!
Third Scene
(all the above said plus Giovanni Mocenigo)
Giovanni Mocenigo (breaks in almost breathless): The friar from Nola is
over there! He’s laughing and mocking like a crazy man! Come yourselves and see
through the Telescope that I’m telling the truth!!!
Lodovico delle Colombe (to
card. Caccini): Shall we go and see?
Card. Caccini (in a angry way): I’ll never look through that devilish
tool! Let another witness come!
Secretary: Francesco Graziano!
Fourth Scene
(all the above said plus Francesco Graziano)
Francesco Graziano (comes in timidly): Good day your eminences…
Nicolò Lorini: What can you testify of those heretic people?
Francesco Graziano: I’ve heard many of them saying the earth moves on
along the sun!
A buzz will rise powerful through the accusers
Claudio Acquaviva: What other proves do we need!!”! They are denying the
Holy Books!!!
Card. Caccini: Let’s hear the fourth witness!
Secretary: I call for Frà
Celestino from Verona
Fifth Scene
(all the above said plus Fra’ Celestino)
Fra Celestino: Your Eminences I have heard people saying the pope is not
unfailing and that it cannot be believed
what cannot be demonstrated by means of scientific evidence; and furthermore
the Almighty cannot intervene in human affairs for He has created the world and
nothing more cares of it!
Don Pedro de Vera: That’s unbelievable to be heard!
Card. Caccini We have a last
witness, haven’t we?
Secretary: Come the last witness!!
Sixth Scene
(all the above said plus the Unnamed Witness)
The last witness (is a dark, hooded men with a sheepskin on his hands) I bring the
list of the black men with the books of blasphemy they have written against the
unique truth: Galileo Galilei, Hugo Grotius, John Comenius, René Descartes,
Francis Bacon, Johannes Keplero, Isaac Newton, John Locke, David Hume, Immanuel
Kant…
Benedetto Mandina: I think that’s enough!
Jacopo Aldobrandini: Let’s them burn all!
Card. Caccini (with imperative voice): Silence please!It’s time to issue
our sentence!!!!
Seventh Scene
(Enter the
Devils of Loudun: Lucifer, the young Satan, Beelzebub, Leviathan, Elimi,
and Astaroth. They wear spears of
iron, tightens and tridents; all of them are horribly dressed and infuse great
terror in the judges and in all the present people)
Lucifer:
I also have to issue a sentence in the name of all the guilty magicians,
alchemist and witches you have burn through the time and on revenge of those, much
more numerous, you have unjustly condemned.
Card. Caccini (in a desperate attempt): Vade retro Satana!
Satan
(laughing). Hey, don’t misunderstand!!! Satan is me oh man!!! I could go back
if you held the Holy Cross! But you have dismissed it since longtime!!!
Beelzebub
(with a fierce grin): Enough with the talk!!! Let’s go to have the great orgy
on torture!
(forced and planted by the arms’ devils all
the judges, the guards and the witnesses are pushed into the room of torture;
the devils will do that with outrages and obscene phrases against the religious
men. After all the men are inside the
torture room appear on the stage Dante and Virgil.)
Height Scene
(Dante
and Virgil)
Dante
(clearly frightened). What is going to happen to them?
Virgil:
Don’t feel sorry for them, my son!!!That’s the law of counterfeiting!!! The
evil they made to the others will be inflicted them by those devils!!!
(horrible
screamers and terrible howls will be heard from inside the torture room)
Dante
(shivering): Oh that is so frightening!!!
Virgil:
Take courage my son!!! That’s the Hell not a walk for seminarians and
novices!!!
(from
a dark corner a man silently appears walking like in trance, praying with
rosary in his hands; he’s a man of medium size and strong looking; he wears a black hooded habit, sandals and a shoulder bag)
Ninth Scene
(the
above said and Alberto Tragagliolo)
Dante
(recovering behind his master with trembling voice): Look my master…there is
someone coming up…
Virgil
(with a cold blood voice): Who are you, in the name of God!!!
Alberto
Tragagliolo: In the name of God my name is Alberto Tragagliolo, father
commissary of pope Clement the VIII for the Roman Holy Inquisition. I came from
Piacenza and I was also called as Drago!!!
Dante:
It’s why you are a dragon that those bloody devils didn’t pick you up with the
others?
Virgil:
No, my son! Haven’t you heard Satan?
Alberto
Tragagliolo (showing the holy rosary still in his hand) It’s because of this!!!
Furthermore I was sent to the assembly on defense of some defendant…’ you know?
I don’t even know why I’m here…
Dante:
What we are going to do with him, master?
Virgil:
We cannot leave him here, can we?
Alberto
Tragagliolo: Might God compensate you for your generosity…
Virgil:
But father, I must warn you, we are simply moving to another circle of this
same Hell!
(other
terrible screams will be heard from the torture’s room)
Alb.
Tragagliolo (pointing the torture’s room): Anywhere else will be better than
that!!!
Virgil:
Let me see! (to Dante) Tell me son: would you like to visit the Era of Enlightenment
or you want to see directly the French Revolution?
Dante
(thinking about it and pointing the empty table where the judges sat just
shortly before): As far as I understood we have already assisted the struggle
between science and reason by one side and
blind faith and religion by the other
side, haven’t we?
Virgil: Though is not so simple as you put it, I would
say you are right… you’re really a quick pupil anyway!!!
Dante: Thank you so much my master, but it’s you who
are a great schoolmaster!!!
Virgil: Don’t be so humble, my son!!! So, my friend,
before going to Paris we could accompany you
in London. What do you think about?
Alb. Tragagliolo (sheepish but still grateful) I’m in
your hands sir!!!
Virgil: Of course it won’t be easy at all… have you
some money with you?
Alb. Tragagliolo: Sure I
do!!
Virgil: And you need a new identity…
Alb.Tragagliolo: I’ve some clothes in my bag; may I go
to wear them before we leave?
Virgil (pointing the Observatory Room): You can go
there; and be quick please!
Alb. Tragagliolo: Thanks sir! I’ll be ready in a couple
of minutes!!! (exits)
Tenth Scene
(Dante and
Virgil)
Dante (suspiciously): Who is he, master? Won’t you
believe to his story of being a pope’s
emissary?
Virgil: Don’t worry my son! I know very well who is
him…
Dante (looking forward): Please let me know it ,
before he’s back!
Virgil: He’s a master ascended!
Dante (curiously surprised): What do you mean by a master ascended?
Virgil: He’s a body no longer subject to laws of
gravity and death…
Dante (fascinated and admired): How is it possible?
Virgil: In some way they succeed in melting the body and the soul together…
Dante (l.b.): Really great!!! Almost unbelievable… But
there are many of them?
Virgil: No really; only a few…
Dante: Are them good guys?
Virgil: They are tolerated…
Dante: But are them destined to be saved?
Virgil: It’s up to them to save their souls… Normally
they choose to live pursuing material aims…
Dante: Can I have some names?
Virgil: They are really a few, as I told you.
Something tells me that our friend he’s going to pretend to be the Count of
Saint-Germain… or may be Swedenborg Emmanuel… Louis Claude de Saint Martin or
even, who knows?, Antoine Fabre d’Olivet… It depends on what and whom he founds
in London!
Dante: But why do you want bring him to London?
Virgil: I’ll suggest him to search the Conte Cagliostro right in
London…
Dante: But do belong all these masters ascended to a
caste of nobility?
Virgil (laughing): O no, my son! Conte Cagliostro is
only a skilled falsary… He can help him to acquire any identity…Watch out, son!!!Here
he comes!!!
Eleventh Scene
(the above said and Alberto Tragagliolo)
(A very elegant man appears coming out from
the Astronomical Observatory)
Dante: May I ask him something before we go?
Virgil: Anything but his past or his next identity…
Dante (with sighs of nostalgia): No, master! I want
ask him something of my Florence…
Alb. Tragagliolo: I’m ready! Shall we go?
Virgil: You look
really dressy!
Alb. Tragagliolo: Thank you sir!
Dante: Have you ever been to Florence?
Alb. Tragagliolo (looking with suspicion): What are
you asking it for?
Dante: I’m from Florence, ‘ you know?
Alb. Tragagliolo: Are you really? What’s your name?
Dante: My name is Dante Alighieri…
Alb. Tragagliolo (surprised): Dante Alighieri? Do you
mean Durante degli Alighieri, the poet?
Virgil: Right him, man!!!
Dante (humbly): And he’s Publius Vergilius Maro my
schoolmaster!!!
Alb. Tragagliolo
(changing attitude): Dante Alighieri the Florentine and Virgil from Mantua!!!I’m
very sorry I didn’t recognize you! I’m honoured to meet you! But what the hell
are you two doing here?
Virgil (cutting
shortly): We’re just travellers! This is not our place; at least, not more than
it is for yourself!!!
Alb. Tragagliolo:
I see….
Dante: Can you
please answer to my question now?
Alb. Tragagliolo: Of course I can! I was in Florence
in 1348, escaping the Black Death with Giovanni Boccaccio ‘till when the
Ciompi’s Revolt took place. And I went back
to Florence, in the following century, among the new people, at the time Cosimo de’ Medici took power. But I
spent my best years with his grandson Lorenzo,
known as The Magnificent, who succeeded Piero de’ Medici in 1469. Lorenzo was a great patron
of the arts, commissioning works by Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Botticelli. Lorenzo was an accomplished poet and musician and brought
composers and singers to Florence, including Alexander Agricola, Johannes Ghiselin,
and Heinrich Isaac.
I left when,
following the French king Charles VIII invasion,
the Florentines rebelled and expelled
Lorenzo’s son Piero the Second, so restorating
a republican government. You surely know that during this period, the Dominican friar Girolamo
Savonarola had become prior of the San Marco monastery
in 1490. He was famed for his penitential sermons, against widespread immorality and attachment to
material riches. He blamed the exile of the Medici as a divine punishment for their decadence. He seized the
opportunity to carry through political reforms leading to a more democratic
rule. But when Savonarola publicly accused Pope Alexander VI of corruption, he was banned from
speaking in public. When he broke this ban, he was excommunicated. The
Florentines, tired of his extreme teachings, turned against him and arrested
him. He was convicted as a heretic and burned at the stake on the Piazza della
Signoria on 23 May 1498. Fortunately the Medici
took back the power, at the time Niccolò
Machiavelli rose
his fame thanks to his political handbook, titled The Prince, which is
about ruling and the exercise of power. Machiavelli also wrote the Florentine
Histories, the history of the city.
Dante: I’ve read both the Prince and the Florentine
Histories!
Alb. Tragagliolo: I was sure you
did! So you have learned the Florentines drove out the Medici for a second time
and re-established a republic on 16 May 1527. Restored twice with the support
of both Emperor and Pope, the Medici in 1537 became hereditary dukes of
Florence, and in 1569 Grand Dukes
of Tuscany, extending
its power even to Siena and Pistoia. Actually all Tuscany but Lucca and Piombino.
Dante: I’ve also read all this.
Alb. Tragagliolo: As a matter of
fact the great family of Medici had three Popes and two Queens of France, in
addition of many cardinals. Furthermore they were the richest bankers of that
time! And that’s all I’ve seen with my eyes; for the rest is for hearing… ‘you know?
Dante: May be I should be proud of that but I feel so
sad instead!
Virgil: Well, it seems that your republic has not
performed at its best!
Dante: Small consolation indeed!
Virgil: Shall we go? Our spaceship is waiting for us
to go!!!
Alb. Tragagliolo: I’m ready sir!
Dante: Let’s go master!
exeunt
to be continued...
